It's Kook here again for another chapter of Team Itachi.

I am puzzled as to why everyone thinks I'm going to bring in Hinata for this. O.o

Swordianspeed: Thank you! To be honest I like both of the pairings, but I lean more towards ShikaTema.

Rain Dove: That means a lot coming from you, thank you :)

Pyr00tje: Not review a lot? Are you kidding? You're one of my most constant reviewers! :P thanks!

Charrmed: You hit the nail on the head. Which Orochimaru-worshipper isn't creepy? xD

Hanna Lee: Are you serious? The first few chapters weren't great in my opinion, hahaha.

Thanks to Swordianspeed, merry1995, Rain Dove, zarethuzumi, Pyr00tje, Charrmed, Lin, RiinShirosakii, Hanna Lee, tamu and The True Not Important for the reviews!

"What... what are you?"

Jirobo smirked.

With a distorted voice, the beast gave a roar and sprung towards Choji.

"Choji!" Ino shrieked.

Choji tried to defend himself, but Jirobo gave him a simple blow to the chest, sending him flying. Choji coughed out blood, shocked by the strength of the punch.

Whatever he did to himself... it's enhancing his strength!

Ino looked at the ground bitterly.

I'm supposed to be backing Choji up! But I... I'm just being a burden!

With a delightful cackle, Jirobo stomped over to Ino, prepared to give her a few killing blows.

Flying through the air, Choji saw this, and quickly forced himself to regain his composure. In mid-air, he yelled, "Super Expansion Jutsu!"

Growing into the size of a giant, Choji charged towards Jirobo and gave him a kick.

Jirobo smashed into a tree.

Raising his giant foot, Choji brought it down on Jirobo, crushing the Oto-nin, or so he thought.

Ino gasped in horror, as Jirobo lifted the gigantic foot in front of her eyes.

"I already told you, you can't beat me when I'm in level two of the Cursed Seal... fatso!" Jirobo summoned all his strength, and to his opponent's surprise, managed to push the giant Akimichi's foot off of him.

Losing his balance, Choji quickly reverted back to normal size before any trees could be crushed from a possible fall.

As soon as that happened, Jirobo was behind him.

Swiftly using the Partial Expansion Jutsu, Choji was able to block Jirobo's punch with his giant hands.

Ino attacked Jirobo with a kunai again, but was easily brushed away by the monster with a swipe of his arm. However, Choji managed to use this as a distraction, connecting his giant fist with Jirobo's face.

Jirobo was knocked back, and Choji continued the assault.

It was an all-out taijutsu battle, between two physically strong individuals.

Blocking Choji's giant fist with his own hand, Jirobo dealt a painful jab to Choji's chest and then a punch in his face intended to kill. The future Akimichi head was knocked back, but Jirobo wasn't done.

Choji was lifted into the air, and then rammed into a tree.

"Choji!" Ino screamed, picking herself up.

Getting an idea, Jirobo hauled Choji away from the tree and slammed him into the ground.

Choji tried to move, to get up, but he couldn't. The side-effects of the Curry Pill sank in, and the unbearable pain returned.

Thankfully, Jirobo hadn't caught on to the side-effects of the pill yet. Instead, he walked over to Ino, and with a mad smile, picked her up with one hand.

"I'm going to kill her while you watch, and then when I'm done, I'll kill you too."

Staring at the frightful face of Jirobo, Ino closed her eyes. Is this it? She thought back to her time with Team 10.

I've never really done anything for my team.

It's always been Shikamaru, Choji and Asuma-sensei.

Even in the Chunin Exams, I couldn't put up a fight against Tenten.

All the while, instead of trying to improve my skills, I've been just... obsessing over my looks and thinking about boys.

I don't... I don't deserve to be a ninja.

Goodbye... Shikamaru, Choji, Asuma-sensei, Sasuke-kun... Daddy.

Choji's eyes widened. His hand moved into his pocket. The Chili Pill.

His cowardly personality kicked in again. He was going to be the next head of the Akimichi. Successor to his father. He was still a Genin. He'd just started his ninja career. Was he ready to die now?

The answer was no.

Then, Choji's gaze fixed on Ino, her eyes silently pleading her attacker for mercy.

With newfound determination, Choji felt his hands closing around the item that would, as his father had described it, give him unbelievable strength, stronger than the Hokage... as well as guarantee his death.

But he couldn't think about that now.

As Choji began to pull the Chili Pill from his pocket, he saw a shadow moving towards Jirobo.

The brown-haired Genin stopped and stared in surprise. Is that...?

Jirobo froze, dropping Ino.

"Shadow Possession Jutsu... success."

"Do you really think leaving Ino behind was a good idea?"

Sakura turned to Kiba, fixing him with a questioning look.

"I mean... she's probably the weakest in the entire squad..."

Sakura smiled, shaking her head.

"I believe in Ino."

Kiba snorted. "I thought you two were rivals."

"W-We are!" Sakura defended. "It's just... there's no time to be thinking about that on a mission like this."

Nodding in agreement, Kiba continued on his smelling. Detecting another presence, the Inuzuka stopped his team captain with an outstretched hand.

"Another guy... not moving... probably another enemy, waiting for us..."

"The fact that he's waiting for us must mean he doesn't have Sasuke-kun..." Sakura concluded. Then she looked up determinedly. "Still, we should check it out. Let's go."

The duo stopped, hiding within the bushes. Kiba sniffed the air and nodded.

Peeking out of the bushes, Sakura saw another shinobi. A forehead protector on him indicated he was from Oto, and the purple rope belts he wore were also similar to Orochimaru.

"Kiba, can you sniff out Sasuke-kun?"

Kiba sniffed. "No... Either Sasuke's kept in somewhere even my nose can't detect... or this guy doesn't have him."

Sakura growled. "Since that's the case, we'll backtrack and help Choji and Ino with the enemy. Then, we join up with Naruto's team again to pursue the-"

"Backtrack?" Sakura's eyes widened as she felt a presence behind her and Kiba. "I don't think so."

"Shadow Possession Jutsu... success."

"S-Shikamaru!" Ino exclaimed.

"Shikamaru..." Choji smiled, relaxing his grip on the Chili Pill.

Shikamaru Nara shot a lazy smile towards his two teammates. "Looks like I came in time."

"Who... who are you?" Jirobo growled. He tried to move, to attack this new opponent, but found that his limbs were frozen in place.

Without giving an answer, Shikamaru did three hand seals. "Ninja Art: Shadow Strangle Jutsu."

A shadow hand shot up Jirobo and edged towards his neck.

"Take this..."

The hand got to the beast's neck, and began tightening it's grip. Jirobo started choking, and tried desperately to free himself, now realizing what Shikamaru was trying to do.

With the strength granted to him with the Cursed Seal, Jirobo did just that.

Shikamaru frowned as the shadowy hand began to slowly withdraw from his target's neck.

Smirking, Jirobo continued to force it down. "You Konoha ninja are all trash... you need backup to catch me off-guard... yet, your backup can't do shit either!"

The Shadow Strangle Jutsu beginning to fail, Shikamaru called out urgently to Choji.

"Choji! Get him!"

"I... I can't... Shikamaru..." Choji whispered.

"Choji! C'mon!"

The side-effects of the Curry Pill remained, but had began to settle. Willing himself to get up, Choji began growing and balled himself up. Each step brought greater pain, but he couldn't fail his best friend and teammates.

"Human Boulder!"

Jirobo roared in anger as he tried to evade Choji, but the Shadow Possession Jutsu kept him in place.

Finally, he was able to free himself of Shikamaru's shadow, but he was too late. Choji's Human Boulder caught him and rammed him into a tree.

"Good job, Choji," Shikamaru smiled. It faded as Choji collapsed onto the ground, unconscious after his attack. "Choji?!"

Seeing their opponent wouldn't be moving for awhile, Shikamaru dug into the pockets of his best friend, immediately fearing the worst. To his relief, the Chili Pill remained, but the Spinach Pill and Curry Pill were missing.

With a sigh, the Nara boy laid Choji on the ground.

"Shikamaru... I'm sorry..."

Ino didn't know why she was apologizing, but felt that she had to.

"Choji... he... he took the pills... to save me..."

"Ino!" Shikamaru silenced her, getting up. "Now's not the time to be apologizing. Let's get him." He stepped forward. "I'll find a way to catch him in my Shadow Possession Jutsu again. When that's done, you use your Mind Transfer Jutsu on him."

"But if I do that, any damage done to him will also-"

"I know," Shikamaru cut her off. "I'll get your body and Choji. In the enemy's body, you will go with me back to Konoha. The Hokage will decide what to do with him."

"I get it," Ino nodded. "So we don't kill or defeat him, but we get him back to the village."

Shikamaru nodded in reply. "He made Choji resort to using two pills... this guy... we won't be a match for him, so that's the only other option."

Jirobo, slowly recovering from the blow of Choji's Human Boulder, rose back up to his feet and fixed a hateful glare on the two members of Team 10. Shikamaru straightened himself.

"This is probably going to be the most troublesome fight I'm going to experience..."

With a maniacal cry, Jirobo charged towards Ino, but Shikamaru jumped in front of his teammate and did the Rat seal.

Immediately, his shadow shot out.

Already seeing what Shikamaru's shadow could do, Jirobo jumped to the side, avoiding it.

"I'm not going to be caught in that a second time, Konoha-nin!" He declared, and jumped forward to attack again.

"Tsk. Troublesome." Shikamaru manipulated his shadow once more, causing it to make a turn to follow Jirobo's moves.

"It can turn?" Jirobo realized. Annoyed by the fact, the mane-spotting shinobi postponed his attack, leaping back to avoid the shadow. "This blasted shadow is frustrating."

"Ino," Shikamaru spoke. "Get the explosive tags in my pocket."

Following his instructions, Ino got out four explosive tags.

"Attach them to your kunai and fling them at him. Hopefully it'll serve as a good distraction."

Jirobo was already moving as fast as he could to avoid the moving shadow. Fortunately for Shikamaru, Jirobo didn't think the shadow had a specific range limit, and hadn't thought about jumping back for the technique to cease.

"Alright..." Ino threw the first of the kunai. "Boom!" She grinned as the kunai sank into the unsuspecting Jirobo's arm and exploded.

Excitement quickly turned to shock as Jirobo reappeared behind her with a Substitution Jutsu.

Reacting quickly, Ino grabbed her second kunai and stabbed it into Jirobo's knee. The close range proximity between them made it impossible to miss. Activating the explosive tag on the weapon, both Ino and Jirobo were flung forward and backward respectively.

Shikamaru was also thrown back, although unharmed.

"Ino!" He cried.

"Worth it," the blonde muttered to herself, as she felt blood running down new wounds on her back.

"You... you little..." Jirobo got up again, although visibly hurt from the explosion. Tearing off his tattered shirt, the bare-chested ninja tried to attack Ino again, but Shikamaru tackled Jirobo before he could reach his target.

The shadow manipulator received a punch to the face in return.

Recovering quickly, Shikamaru jumped in front of Ino, and dropped a smoke bomb.

Jirobo growled, as the smoke shielded his opponents from his line of sight.

With the injured Ino in his arms, Shikamaru leaped onto a nearby tree, sincerely praying that the enemy had forgotten about the unconscious body of Choji lying a few meters away.

"Ino," Shikamaru looked down. "You alright?"

"Y-Yeah..." Why am I always the one being rescued? Why can't I protect myself?

"Tch. You are such a troublesome woman." Shikamaru muttered.

For once, Ino found herself mentally agreeing with Shikamaru.

Seeing his words had a negative effect on his blonde teammate, the Nara sighed. "I didn't mean that."

They had no more time to converse, as Jirobo was soon flying through the air towards them. Shikamaru jumped off the branch, seconds before Jirobo grabbed hold of it and snapped it in half.

Landing on the ground, Shikamaru looked down at Ino again. "You can walk, right?"

His reply was a nod. Shikamaru let Ino down, and quickly resumed the shadow assault. As Jirobo landed on the ground as well, a shadow flew towards him.

"This annoying shadow again..." Jirobo jumped to the left, then to the right, desperately trying to avoid the shadow. "How do I get rid of it?"

You keep jumping backwards until you're out of the shadow's range, but obviously you aren't too smart to be unable to think of something like that, Shikamaru silently replied, with a smirk on his face.

"Ino!" Shikamaru called.

"Oh... right." The Genin of the two aimed and threw the third kunai. Jirobo was unable to catch a good look at it due to his constant dodging of the shadow, and simply tried to knock it away with a swipe of his hand, and in the event, got caught in his third explosion of the day.

"The next kunai... now!" Shikamaru yelled. Ino complied, her last kunai soon gone from her hands.

Jirobo emerged from the smoke. "Is explosions all you trash can rely on-"

Another explosion followed.

Now! Shikamaru thought to himself, focusing all his chakra on the shadow.

Jirobo was lying against a tree as smoke cleared once more, cursing the explosions.

"Stop using explosive tags," Jirobo complained. "If you're a real ninja, come and prove it with your own techniques!" With that said, he got up.

"I just did."

Unfortunately for the Sound ninja, he could not move a single step further.

"Shadow Possession Jutsu, success."

"Damn you Konoha-nin..."

Shikamaru simply chuckled. "Looks like we've tamed the beast."

"A beast, alright," Jirobo glared. "As soon as I'm out of this, you and your girlfriend are dead."

"My girlfriend?" Shikamaru yawned. "No way. She's too troublesome."

Ino shot Shikamaru a look, which he returned with a lazy smile.

"Now... Ino." The Chunin turned to his companion.

Placing her hands in the specific hand seal, Ino focused her aim on Jirobo.

"Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu."

"So, how did you find us?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Battle sounds. Trail. You guys leave footsteps, y'know?"

"Oh, so that's it."

"Yeah. By the way, are you okay?" He looked down, the unconscious body of Ino in his arms.

"I am." Jirobo, or Ino in this case, grunted beside him, Choji on his, or her, back. "Just a few minor bruises and stuff like that."

Shikamaru turned to look at the possessed body of his enemy. "Any idea how to look like a human being again?"

"I don't know," Ino said in disgust, feeling her newly-acquired orange mane flowing behind her.

Chuckling, Shikamaru continued on towards the direction of Konoha.

Ino looked down, as she followed after her teammate.

Next time... I'm not going to let my teammate get hurt protecting me again.

So Jirobo is... somewhat defeated. I hope you guys were pleased with the fight itself and the outcome of the battle. And yes, basically, that is everything there is to Shikamaru's involvement, unfortunately. In the next chapter, it is Sakura and Kiba's turn to partner up to fight the Sound Four's next member, Kidomaru. Until next time!